Broader Impacts
Science should impact our world. Our team is dedicated to making a broad impact via mentorship, equity and inclusion, and science outreach, engagement, and education.
The Legacy of Megaherbivores
A Documentary Film
Photo by Tom Bouyer
The Legacy of Megaherbivores, will ‘follow’ the life and death of an elephant in the African savanna, explaining their effect on ecosystem function, and include footage of elephants of different life stages and elephant megacarcasses of increasing age. The life cycle of these megaherbivores will be put into broader ecological context, understanding how megaherbivores impact ecosystems and the current implications for ecosystems facing their disappearance. We hope to engage a broad audience, and facilitate both increased interest in STEM as well as knowledge about ecosystems processes and the ecology or megacarcasses.
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Teaser: The Legacy of Megaherbivores
Educational Materials
We have recruited an undergraduate student, Prial Boyes, at Utah State University to co-develop multiple open-access educational products with our PhD student, Ryan Helcoski. This team is co-designing and producing 2 educational children’s videos based on gaps in available educational material at the highschool level. Together, they have also produced the 1-minute short videos you see on our website. Ryan is also co-designing and producing a university-level lecture based on his research topic. University-level lectures being submitted for peer-review
and publication by established online repositories (e.g., Case Studies in the Environment), and children’s videos
will be submitted to accredited repositories (e.g., Teachertube.com, YouTube EDU).
Community Outreach
With our collaborators within South African National Parks and the South African Environmental Observation Network, we plan multiple outreach and engagement activities within the local communities surrounding Kruger National Park. This includes speaking with and presenting to local schools, participating in local science events, and giving university level lectures. We will also create educational and outreach material that can be provided to park visitors.
